I copied his blunt manner. "You broke the word you gave me yesterday, and I take back the pledge I gave you."
"What do you mean?"
"I was sent for to your father's office to-day."
"I know nothing of that."
"I don't believe you," I rapped out sharply.
"I'm not going to have you here to insult me," he blustered.
"Having failed in that trick of bringing Dormund to my house yesterday, you set your father's people on to me to see what they could do. You did this in the face of your promise to give up your attempt to find Fräulein Korper on condition that I said nothing to Herr Ziegler."
"They knew all about everything without me."
"What they are going to know next will be all about you and Hagar Ziegler. And Ziegler is going to know all about the other matter. It would have paid you better to run straight with me."
He appeared to be taken utterly by surprise by this, having been fool enough to believe that I should not see his hand behind that summons to his father's office. His bluster dropped away like an ill-fitting cloak. "I don't know why you want to hound me down in this way. What is Hagar Ziegler to you?"